THEN IT WENT ON ALL RIGHT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XIII, 1 April 1899, Page 421

THEN IT WENT ON ALL RIGHT.

The writer of the letter which I am going to copy for you in a moment has a complaint to make. Rather, perhaps, a complaint to place on record, as the reason for it is passed away for the present and she hopes—and we hope with her—that it may not return. The complaint does not reier to any relative, friend, or foe, but to her own heart. It did not work well. It was weak, and for a long time she was unable to find means to make it do better. Which was a serious matter, inasmuch as the vigour of the circulation of the blood always depends upon the force wherewith the heart drives it.

Still, it seems to me we ought to be a bit indulgent towards the heart in view of the labour it has to perform. Remember that it never takes a full minute’s rest at one time, night or day, from the instant it begins at your birth until, like a muffled drum, it stops for good and all—life’s funeral march to the grave being over. During all this while, ten years or a hundred, the heart has got to keep on numping blood through your body at the rate of from 130 strokes a minute in childhood to 50 or i’»o in old age If you happen to have a mechanical turn of mind, it may interest you to figure out how much this stands for in units of horse-power for a given case and time. If not, you can take my word for it that, merely as a machine, the heart deserves your respect. So long as it goes ahead steadily, up hill and down dale, hammering away softly but strongly, you haven’t a word to say for or against it: but when it begins to get weak, maybe skipping a stitch now and then, you call in the. doctor, who puts Hie tip of his finger just below the base of your left thumb, looks wise and solemn (ns befits the occasion), and says, ‘Ah, yes, yes: I see. I see.’ I bit what does he see? He doesn’t tell you that; he leaves medicine, nnd mentions when he will look in again. But as to the letter I spoke of. ‘For many years.’ the lady says, ‘I suffered from indigestion and weak heart. Very little exertion made me feel weary and tired. Cold, clammy sweats broke over inc. I had a poor appetite, and after meals an aching pain

nt the chest and a miserable sinking feeling at the stomach. I had also much pain at the left side, and my heart would flutter so as to frighten me. At length I became so weak I was barely able to get about, being no longer able to do my housework.

‘Owing to the trouble at my heart I obtained no proper rest at night, ami often walked about my bedroom at night. Many times these attacks were so bad I thought 1 was dying. During the day a sense of suffocation sometimes eame upon me and I was obliged to go to the door for fresh air.

‘Year after year 1 suffered like this; now a little better, now as bad as I could be. In November, 1887, while on a visit to Croydon, my son-in-law persuaded me to try Mother Seigel’s Syrup. He got me a bottle, and after taking it I experienced great relief. The pain at my heart was easier, and I felt better as a whole. I could eat well and the food agreed with me. ‘I now felt encouraged to continue using this remedy. Soon I was in better health than for years, the heart trouble having disappeared altogether. Since that time when 1 feel anything ailing me a few doses of Mother Seigel’s Syrup never fail to give the desired relief. I have told many persons of the benefit I have derived from it, and hereby consent to your publishing this statement should you wish to do so.’-—(Signed) (Mrs) William Harrington, near Wickford Hill. Clare, Suffolk, November 12th. 1897.

Now what ailed Mrs Harrington’s heart ? Why, precisely the same things that ailed her lungs, her nerves and her muscles —weakness. Therein she is rigiit. It was a weak heart, 1.-ut not a diseased heart. The heart is a muscle, and (seeing the prodigious lot of work it has to do) necessarily a strong active muscle. But it will not work without pay any move than you or I will. With all the rest of the body it has got to be sustained and strengthened by food. Here we have the point, then. The ladv was afflicted with chronic indigestion. Foi - this reason her whole body grew weak—the heart, of course, witli other parts of the engine. Hence all the symptoms she names. Her immense all-round weakness and I uller-down is that same old dyspepsia. When Mother Seigel’s Syrup made the digestion of plenty of food possible, the heart went on all right, like a newly wound clock.